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FIT TO BE FIRST
Creekside romps over Baird Brothers to win Little b crown at Cene Park
By DAN HINER
StrutherS
Creekside Fitness capitalized on three early errors by Baird Brothers to win the Class Little b 16U championship 10-1 on Wednesday night at Cene Park.
After back-to-back errors, Creekside drove in the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly from Padraig O’Shaughnassy in the top of the first inning.
One batter later, Dom Pecchia made it 2-0 lead when Bryce Richey scored on a groundout.
“You put the ball on the ground, it will put pressure on them and they are going to make mistakes,” Creekside head coach Robert “Bubba” Boughner said. “It helped — you feel bad for them, but it was good for us.”
Creekside took a 3-0 lead in the third inning after O’Shaughnassy reached on a lead-off single to right field. After back-to-back wild pitches, O’Shaughnassy scored from third on a RBI single by Pecchia.
O’Shaughnassy came through for Creekside again in the top of the fourth inning. He hit a two-run single to right field with the bases loaded to give Creekside a 5-0 lead.
After a four-run top of the sixth inning by Creekside, Baird Brothers scored its only run when Blake Benyo came home on a two-out single.
O’Shaughnassy finished three-for three, with two runs scored and five RBIs.
“I was just waiting for a good pitch,” O’Shaughnassy said. “They’re a young team and they’re going to make mistakes. So I was just ready to pounce on them when they gave it to me.”
Boughner said he wasn’t surprised by the five-RBI performance by O’Shaughnassy.
“Pad’s just had a phenomenal playoffs — from game one until now,” Boughner said. “He’s on a tear. He’s ripping the baseball. He’s been on a tear for 10 days now and he continued today.”
Creekside’s pitching was just as good as its hitting. Starting pitcher Eric Sapp threw a complete game. Sapp allowed five hits, one run and struck out 11 batters.
“He was a little erratic at times, but for the most part he was around the strike zone,” Boughner said. “They were swing at some pitches they shouldn’t have and then he had some strikeouts around the knees. He did a great job—an outstanding job actually.”
Sapp said the team’s ability to score in the top of first inning took some of the pressure off of the team.
“We knew it was going to be a hard game,” Sapp said. “When we scored two runs it gave us a lot of energy. You could tell the other team wasn’t there. We knew we had it in the bag and we hit and the defense was solid.”